Lexington Select Board pulls Article 97 high school land swap from spring warrant

LEXINGTON — January 13, 2025 — Lexington Select Board defers Article 97 high school land-swap vote to fall, citing incomplete analysis. The board voted unanimously at its January 13 meeting to pull a proposed Article 97 warrant article from the spring Annual Town Meeting after Town Counsel Mina Makarios confirmed that neither the required alternatives analysis nor preliminary EEA consultation had been formally completed for the Lexington High School field-replacement project, which involves swapping roughly one-for-one the athletic fields that would be displaced by construction. Vice Chair Jill Hay was blunt in her assessment: "I don't think it's in the oven yet." The board also received word that the town's FY2026 employee benefits and insurance budget is projected at $53.3 million — a 4.4 percent overall increase — with health insurance premiums alone rising 10.17 percent, a figure Select Board Chair Doug Lucente noted represents 58 percent of the town's entire Proposition 2½ levy increase for the year; Town Manager Steve Bartha cited Lexington's near-perpetual union health insurance agreement as a complicating factor in any effort to renegotiate.